Paper feeding equipment for accounting machines



' pr 1957 R. A. CHRISTIAN ETAL 2,788,880

PAPER FEEDING EQUIPMENT FOR ACCOUNTING MACHINES Filed July 30, 1953 NEWTOWN TELEPHONE CO. OuLof-Tovm Gulls and Telegrams A I 3 MA I787 SubjecHoU.S.Tux JUN DET 2.25 5 LOC .20

7 CHI 7.75 TRONTO TGM F'G. 4 INVENTORS w RAYMOND A. CHRISTIAN ANDREW J.STRACHAN @Ts 10.00 BY 6M TOTALS OF ABOVE CHARGES flzaM/m M TOTAL CARRIEDTO em. 5 75 THEIR ATTORNEYS PABER FEEDING EQUlPMENT. FOR

ACCOUNTING MACHINES Raymond A. Christian and Andrew 5. trachan, Beytan,Ohio, assignors' to The National Cash Register Conrpany, Dayton, Ohio, acorporation of Maryland Application July 30, 1953, Seriai No. 371,343

4 Claims. (Ci. 197-11 This invention relates to paper feeding equipmentfor accounting machines and is particularly directed to a device forimparting rapid and variable rotational movement to a platen roll tospace the record material supported thereby.

In the present-day business world, modern accounting machines arerequired to perform all types of accounting and related tasks, a typicalexample of .which is the periodic preparation of bills orstatement slipsfor each of the many'customers who use services rendered by publicutility companies, such services including, for exmple, telephone,electric, water, etc. The preparation of such a large number ofsimilar-statement slips becomes a laborious and time-consuming task, andit is the general object of this invention to facilitate the preparationof these many statements byproviding manually-operable means for rapidlyrotating the platen roll of an accounting or like machine to a pluralityof predetermined positions to locate different portions or printingfields of said statements supported thereby in printing position for theentering of various data therein.

Another object of the present invention is the provision of means torapidly rotate a platen roll different extents to space the recordmaterial supported thereby accordingly.

A further object is the provision of manually-operable means for rapidlyrotating a platen roll difierent extents to locate correspondingportions of the record material supported thereby in printing position.

A still further object is to furnish means to rapidly rotate a platenroll to a plurality of predetermined or fixed printing positions toaline different corresponding portions of the record material supportedthereby in printing position..

With these and incidental objects in view, the invention includescertain novel features of construction and combinations of parts, apreferred form or embodiment of which is hereinafter described withreference to the drawing which accompanies and forms a part of'thisspecification, in the difierent views of which drawing similar referencenumerals refer to similar parts.

In the drawing:

Figl is a. side elevation, as observed from the left, showing themechanismfor rapidly rotating the platen roll.

Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the mechanism shown in Fig. 1, part of saidmechanism being broken away to better show parts which would otherwisebe hidden from view.

Fig. 3 is a detail view of the notched disk and feed ratchet associatedtherewith, for rotating the platen after a long feed.

Fig. 4 is a facsimile of a fragmentary portion of a statement slip whichmay be advanced or fed to several printing positions by the mechanismdisclosed herein.

Description The present invention is directed to mechanism for rapidlyrotating a platen roll 20 (Figs. 1 and 2) for feedice ing recordmaterial 21 in. relation to printing sectors 22, for locating differentportions of said record ma? terial in printing position, so that variousdata may be printed in proper locations thereon. The left-hand: end ofthe platen 26) has integral therewith a sleeve23; rotatably supported ina left-hand end. frame 24,. which,, to.- gether with a similarright-hand end frame and. various cross plates, bars, and rails(notshown), forms atravelling carriage, which is mounted on the machine.for trans.- verse movement for presenting various columnar. portions ofthe record material to'the printing mechanism.

The traveling carriage disclosed in this application is similar in everyrespect to, and operates exactly like, the. traveling carriage used, ona well-known type of. accounting machine, which is fully disclosed. in.United. States Patent No. 2,626,749, issued; January 27,, 1953,, to.Rayinond A. Christian et al., to which reference may be had for a fulldescription of mechanism not pertinent to the present invention and forthat reason not. fully disclosed herein.

in the present embodiment, the, record material 21 is in the form of aseries of identical bills or statements, such as that shown in Fig. 4,connected in acontinuous strip or web, a supply of which may be. in.theformof a roll or a fanfold. package supported the carriage frameworkin any suitable manner. The web. of record material 21 is directed,beneath the platen roll 29., as shown in Fig. 1, and is maintainedinyielding contact. with the periphery of said platen. roll by the.usual pressure rollers (not shown), and, in addition, an auxiliarypressure roller 25, supported in a yoke. 26, in turnmounted in thecarriage framework, coacts with. the upper. edges of the bills to.maintain them in contact with the. platen roll and to form a tearing barfor separating the. completed bills from the web; of record material,said bills being perforated in proper locations to facilitate theirseparation from the continuous. web.

As indicated in Fig. l, counter-clockwise. rotation of. the platen rollfeeds the record materialv 21. in. relation to the printing sectors 22to properly. position different portions of said record material. inrelation to said printing sectors, whereupon operation of said sectors,in co.- operation with an inking ribbon 27,. prints records upon saidrecord material. The platen roll 20 may be revolved manually by means ofa knob 23 (Figs. 1. and'2) con! nected to the sleeve 23, or said platenroll may be re.- vclved automatically by means of, aratchet29-,alsoconnected to the sleeve 23, the teeth. of said. ratchet. beingengaged by a feed pawl (notshown) which, may. be. op.- erated upon eachcycle of operation of the machine to. rotate the platen roll' theequivalent of one or. more line spaces in a counter-clockwise direction,as shown in,

vided for disconnecting. the platen. 20 from the ratchet 29 and forturning said platen in relation. to. said ratchet.

to properly locate a particular position or line of the rec, ord'material in printing position. 29 may be constructed with twoidenticalsections. of the. same length or of different lengths, whicl1. maybe.rotated.

independently of each other. for the proper line=spacing of separaterecord materials supported thereby, orthe; two. sections may be coupledtogether for unitary or concert: movement, if desired, and this.couplingancl uncoupling are. controlled. by a knob 31. (Fig, 2.) which,When'in' its outer position, as shown here, disconnects the two portionsof the platen roll 20 but, when pushed inwardly to The.

If desired, the platen.-

3 its inward position, couples the two sections of the platen togetherfor unitary rotation, either by the knob 28 or automatically.

Integral with the ratchet 29 (Figs. 1 and 2) is a gear 32, which mesheswith anidler gear 33 pivoted on a stud 34 journaled in a bushing securedinthe sidewall of the frame 24. The idler gear 33 meshes with a drivegear 35 secured to a shaft 36, the right-hand end of which is journaledin a bushing in the frame 24, and the left-hand end of which isjournaled in a hub 37 secured in a support plate 38 properly spaced fromand secured to the side wall of the frame 24 by means of three studs 39,the left-hand ends of which are secured in the plate 38 and theright-hand ends of which are secured to the frame 24 by screws. A disk41 (Figs. 2 and 3) has integral therewith a hub (not shown) which issecured to the shaft 36, and said disk has operating shoulders 42 and43, engageable by a feed pawl 44 pivotally mounted on the outer end ofan arm 45 free on the hub of the disk 41, said pawl 44 being yieldinglyurged into engagement with the shoulders 42 and 43 by a spring 46,tensioned between said pawl and said arm 45. Integral with the arm 45 isa pinion 47, the teeth of which mesh with a gear segment 48 (Figs. 1 and2) pivotally mounted on a' stud 49 secured in the plate 38, said segmentbeing operatively connected by a stud 50 to a downward extension of anoperating lever 51, also free on the stud 49. A spring 52, tensionedbetween the stud 50 and a stationary stud secured in the plate 38, urgesthe lever 51 and the seg-' ment 48 counterclockwise to normally maintaina raised stop surface of said segment 48 in yielding contact with ashoulder on a stop stud 53 secured in the plate 38. The operating lever51 has secured to its outer end, in convenient location formanipulation, a handle or finger piece 54.

In Fig. 1, the statement slip feeding mechanism is shown in normalposition, with the upper edge of a statement slip 21 just protrudingabove the roller 25 and with the pawl 44 resting on the periphery of thedisk 41 just above the feed shoulder 43 on said disk. In this position,the statement slip 21 is in proper location for the printing of the dataindicated at 55 (Fig. 4) thereon. which requires at least two or morevertical or line-spacing movements in a counterclockwise direction ofthe platen roll 20, which may be imparted manually, by means of the,knob 28, or automatically, by the usual line-spacing mechanism. Suchline-spacing movement of said platen 20, through the gears 32, 33, and35, rotates the disk 41 the equivalent of two line spaces in acounter-clockwise direction to move the shoulder 43 above the upper endof the feed pawl 44, which is immediately spring-urged into the path ofsaid shoulder 43.

In other words, two counter-clockwise line-spacing movements of theplaten roll 20 are required to move the disk 41 sufiiciently to permitthe feed pawl 44 to drop in behind the feed shoulder 43, and, as it isalways necessary to line-space the platen at least two spaces or more,for the printing of the required data in location 55 thereon, theshoulder 43 is always moved into position to be engaged by the pawl 44upon operation of the handle 54 and the lever 51.

After the required data has been printed at location 55 upon the bill orstatement 21, the operator grasps the handle 54 and moves said handleand the lever 51 clockwise or downwardly (Fig. 1) against the action ofthe spring 52, thus causing the segment 48, in cooperation with thepinion 47, to rotate the arm 45 counter-clockwise, whereupon the pawl 44engages the shoulder 43 and carries the disk 41, the shaft 36, and thegear 35 in unison therewith, in a counter-clockwise direction. Thisrotation of the gear 35, through the idler 33 and the gear 32, rapidlyrotates the platen 20 counter-clockwise to move the statement 21 fromits first printing position to its second printing position, which isindicated at 56 on the slip 21 (Fig. 4). As shown in Fig. 1, clockwiserotation of the segment 48 moves a square stop stud 57, secured therein,into the path of a stop shoulder 58 on the disk 41 (see also Fig. 3), tostop said disk and connected parts, including the platen 20, in positionto locate the second printing position 56 of said slip 21 opposite theprinting line. Releasing the handle 54 and the lever 51, after the firstfeeding movement has been imparted to the statement slip, permits thespring 52 to return said handle and the segment counter-clockwise, whichreturn movement is terminated by the stop surface on said segmentcontacting the stop stud 53. This return movement of the segment 48rotates the arm 45 clockwise in a take-up direction until the pawl 44drops behind the feeding shoulder 42, as indicated in dot-and-dash linesin Fig; 3, in preparation for the second feeding movement of thestatement slip 21. j

After the data indicated at 56 (Fig. 4) has been printed upon thestatement slip 21, the operator grasps the handle 54 and imparts thesecond feeding movement in a clockwise direction to said handle, thelever 51, and the segment 48. This causes the segment 48, in cooperationwith the pinion 47, to rotate the arm 45 in a feeding orcounter-clockwise direction, during which movement the pawl 44 engagesthe shoulder 42 and carries the disk 41 in unison therewith. Secondfeeding movement of the segment 48 (Fig. l), as explained above, moves asquare stop stud 59, carried thereby, into the path of a stop surface68, formed by a projection on an arm 61 secured on the shaft 36, toobstruct further movement of said arm and said shaft after the platenroll 20 has been rotated counter-clockwise sufficiently to advance thelower end of the completed statement slip 21 above the feeding roller25, so that said statement may be separated from the web by using saidroller 25 as a tearing bar. This second feeding movement of the platenroll 20 also positions the succeeding statement slip on the web 21 inposition for the initial printing near its upper edge, as explainedbefore.

After the second feeding movement has been imparted to the platen 26,the operator releases the handle 54, permitting said handle, the lever51, and the segment 48 (Figs. 1 and 2) to be restored counter-clockwiseto normal position by the spring 52, which is determined by the stopsurface on said segment contacting the stop stud 53, and upon thisreturn movement the feed pawl 44 is located in relation to the firstfeeding notch or shoulder 43, as shown in Fig. 1, in proper position fora repetition of the feeding cycle of the platen roll and the statementslip, as explained above.

From the foregoing description it should be clear that the presentinvention is directed to a manually-operable device of simple andefiicient design and structure for rapidly rotating the platen roll ofan accounting or ,like machine to two predetermined positions to quicklyfeed corresponding portions or fields of a statement slip supportedthereby into printing position for the entering in said field of variousdata.

While the form of mechanism herein shown and described is admirablyadapted to fulfill the objects primarily stated, it is to be understoodthat it is not intended to confine the invention to the one form orembodiment disclosed herein, for it is susceptible of embodiment invarious other forms.

What is claimed is:

i. In a machine of the class described, constructed and arranged toprint records on a web of separable record material, said machine havingmeans including a rotatable platen roll for advancing the web of recordmaterial to various printing positions, the combination of a hand lever;a segment connected to the lever for movement in unison therewith; meansoperable by the segment to rotate the platen to advance the recordmaterial; coacting stop means on the segment and the rotating means toterminate rotation of the platen at the end of one stage of its movementto locate one portion of the record material in printing position; andcoacting stop means on the segment and the rotating means to terminaterotation of the platen at the end of another stage of its movement tolocate a difierent portion of the record material in printing position.

2. In a machine of the class described, constructed and arranged toprint records on a statement slip, said machine having means including arotatable platen roll to advance the statement slip to various printingpositions, the combination of a hand lever for rotating the platen roll;a segment connected to the lever for movement in unison therewith; afeed pawl operated by the segment; means including a disk engageable bythe feed pawl to rotate the platen to advance the slip; a stop armintegral with the disk; stop means on the segment coacting with the diskto stop the platen at the termination of a first stage of its rotationalmovement to locate one portion of the statement slip in printingposition; and stop means on the segment coacting with the stop arm tostop the platen at the termination of a second stage of its rotationalmovement to locate a different portion of the statement slip in printingposition.

3. In a machine of the class described, constructed and arranged toprint records on a statement slip, said machine having means including arotatable platen roll for advancing the statement slip to variousprinting positions, the combination of a hand lever for rotating theplaten; a segment connected to the lever for movement in unisontherewith; a feed pawl operated by the segment; means including a diskengageable by the feed pawl to rotate the platen to advance the slip; astop arm integral with the disk; coacting stop means on the segment andthe disk to stop the platen at the end of one stage of its rotationalmovement to locate one portion of the slip in printing position; andstop means on the segment coacting with the stop arm to stop the platenat the end of another stage of its rotational movement to locate anotherportion of the slip in printing position.

4. In a machine of the class described, constructed and arranged toprint records on different portions of a statement slip, said machinehaving a platen roll constructed and arranged to be rotatedautomatically or manually to feed the statement slip, the combination ofa hand lever for rotating the platen roll; a segment connected to thehand lever for operation in unison therewith; a feed pawl constructedand arranged to be operated by the segment; means including a feed diskoperatively connected to the platen, said disk having shouldersengageable by the pawl to rotate the platen roll different extents; astop shoulder on the disk; a first stop stud in the segment, said studengageable with the shoulder to stop the platen at one stage of itsmovement to locate one portion of the statement slip in printingposition; a stop arm integral with the disk; and a second stop stud inthe segment, said stud engageable with the stop arm to stop the platenin another stage of its movement to locate another portion 'of the slipin printing position, said latter stop means arranged to remaineffective until the platen is rotated at predetermined extent by meansother than the hand lever.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS931,680 Cooper Aug. 17, 1909 1,827,745 Hagemann Oct. 20, 1931 2,059,215Dreher Nov. 3, 1936 2,331,120 Hill et al Oct. 5, 1943

